


Why I loved how Game of Thrones ended

by Metabird (wheatear)



Series: Essays on power [8]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Character Archetypes, Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 08, Spoilers, Trope Subversion, Westerosi Politics, power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-26 14:14:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23005360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheatear/pseuds/Metabird
Summary: For me, Game of Thrones has always been about power and now that it's over we have its definitive thesis statement on the nature of power. A meta commentary on what worked about the finale.
Series: Essays on power [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653358
Comments: 4
Kudos: 12
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Why I loved how Game of Thrones ended

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this about a week after the Game of Thrones series finale after realizing, to my surprise, that fandom in general seemed to hate it. This commentary is my attempt to capture why the ending worked so well for me.

What makes a good ending? What makes an ending make sense? I think it's going to depend on which characters you root for, your expectations of what outcomes the story is setting up and how those pay off, and which themes and bits of foreshadowing resonate with you. For me, _Game of Thrones_ has always been about power and now that it's over we have its definitive thesis statement on the nature of power and luckily for me I agree with it exactly. So that's why I'm happy.  
  
What do I mean? I think its thesis statement is this:

**Power resides where men believe it resides.**

  
  
It's no coincidence that Tyrion repeats these words in Season 8, which were originally said by Varys. Here's the full quote:

>   
_"Power resides where men believe it resides. It's a trick, a shadow on the wall, and **a very small man can cast a very large shadow."**_

  
Look at this quote, and look at what happens in the finale. What a piece of foreshadowing. In the last episode, Tyrion is the kingmaker. Look at Tyrion's speech, which builds on this same theme:

>   
_"What unites people? Armies? Gold? Flags? **Stories.** There's nothing in the world more powerful than a good story. Nothing can stop it. No enemy can defeat it."_

  
Here Tyrion is answering the question of what makes us believe in the right or suitability of those who rule us. It's about having a compelling story, one that people will believe in. Now, like me, you may well have heard his next words with a sense of disbelief or absurdity:

>   
_"And who has a better story than Bran the Broken?"_

  
_Bran?_ Bran, who didn't even make an appearance in one season, has the best story? Better than Jon Snow, the Prince who was Promised and true heir to the Iron Throne? Better than Daenerys Targaryen, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons? Bran surely was not high up on the list of predictions for who would win the Iron Throne.  
  
But that's the point.  
  
These are all just stories. No one has a right to power. All that matters is that the right people think Bran is suitable and choose to support him, and Tyrion makes a convincing case. In the future annals of Westeros, Bran's story will be written with him as the hero at the centre and it will all seem inevitable. As always, history is written by the winners.  
  
This single narrative choice subverts our expectations in several ways, and I love all of them:  
  
1) Firstly, it means that Jon Snow doesn't become king. I cannot tell you how happy I am about this. He's stupidly noble and heroic, he has the name, he has the destiny, he says he doesn't want it: in short, he has all the ingredients required of a typical fantasy hero. And not only does he not get to be king, he doesn't even get a say! He's absent from the scene where the lords and ladies of Westeros choose their next monarch and then he's sent off to the Wall without any choice in the matter. Because, you know what, him being next in line to the throne _doesn't matter_. It doesn't matter. Hereditary rule is bullshit and no basis for a system of government.  
2) Destiny is bullshit! Prophecy is bullshit! _Game of Thrones_ is a universe where prophecies _don't always come true_. Because guess what, they're bullshit. They're stories that powerful people tell to justify their power. Melisandre believed that Stannis was destined for the throne. She was wrong. Characters do get visions of the future, but they can be misleading. Dany saw herself reaching the Iron Throne, but she never got to sit on it. Her belief in herself as the destined queen is part of what makes her a tyrant and I'm still giddy that the narrative recognized that. Honestly I'm just happy at any subversion of destined power or prophecies.  
3) Tyrion gets to be the one who protests that he doesn't want it and then has power thrust upon him. Tyrion! He's a Lannister, he's spent most of the past few seasons as a supporting character in Dany's story, and he comes out on top. I'm not going to say the Lannisters won because God knows they didn't, but it's great to have even one survivor from the family of designated antagonists, and a character who comes out with his agency intact and not beholden to the whims of the powers that be. He's the kingmaker. I love it.  
4) Which means that we end up with the unlikely duo of King Bran and Tyrion the outcast Lannister as his Hand. I mean, anything would have been more interesting than Jon Snow, but that's pretty cool.  
5) And we do away with the rule of inheritance! Because, again, hereditary rule is bullshit. The end of the series marks the first step towards democracy in Westeros. I love that the end message is supportive of a fairer system, rather than propping up the bullshit ideals of destined heroes and royal blood, which is what both Jon and Dany represented. No divine right of kings here.  
  
I also want to pick out a few other elements of the ending which cohere with this thesis statement and which I appreciated:  
  
• Bronn getting his castle and joining the Small Council. Now, I didn't like Bronn when he threatened Jaime and Tyrion and he's the kind of self-serving asshole you don't want in a position of power, but he's a character who gets it. His speech to Jaime and Tyrion again supports the story's message about the nature of power:

>   
_"Who were your ancestors? The ones who made your family rich? Fancy lads in silk? They were fucking cutthroats. That's how all the great houses started, isn't it? With a hard bastard who was good at killing people."_

  
In other words, the upper classes _aren't special_. They're the same as anyone else, they took their power by force and then pretended they were entitled to it. Honestly, it's refreshing to see a character who is so openly anti-aristocracy.  
  
• Brienne writing Jaime's record in the book about the knights of the Seven Kingdoms. This echoes back to the theme of story-telling and how our perception of a character is influenced by the story we tell about them. Jaime was introduced as the disgraced knight, the Kingslayer. Brienne chooses to portray him as a noble man and writes that he died protecting his Queen. Jaime's reputation is thus posthumously redeemed. I love that we get such a nuanced portrayal of a character who could have been purely a villain, and that the Starks don't get to rewrite his history in their favour.  
  
• Sam's hesitant suggestion that maybe everyone should have a say in who rules the country. Yes, it got laughed off immediately but even to say it demonstrates a shift in thinking. Similarly, the Iron Throne getting melted is a symbolic representation of the downfall of absolute monarchy over the Seven Kingdoms and the possibility of something different in the future.  
  
• Which is why we then see power in Westeros being more broken up and more diverse. Sansa as Queen in an independent North, Yara in the Iron Islands, Brienne leading the Kingsguard and the agreement that the next monarch will be elected. Overall it's a more positive view of a world where power is not entirely in the grip of men with claims to royal blood. The right name is still important, but it's a little more open than it was.  
  
So that's why I enjoyed the subversive elements of the story. I think they were always there but I didn't dare to hope that they would be so fully realized and that the ideal of the destined king or queen would be so completely skewered. Of course, the Starks still won which isn't subversive at all but I think overall the story struck the right balance of giving the heroes a satisfying victory but still having some unexpected winners and losers in the mix.  
  
Yes, the plot was rushed and it could have done with ten episodes rather than six to let the story breathe, but all the major story beats were there. For me it worked on both a thematic and an emotional level, and I can't ask for more than that.


End file.
